Thank you David for the reply. :thumb My uncle is not in either of those pictures, but thanks. As it turns out, he did have something to do with the sponsorship.

I have gone into my racing archives and found an article about my uncle entitled "Luke" written by Mary Andrew from the old Indy Car racing magazine (April 1992 edition, pages 24-25). I found the exact origin of the AMAX sponsorship for the McElreath's and the Bettenhausen's.

Here's an excerpt from that article:

"Luke's (Melvin Lucas's) interest in racing began when four men who worked at AMAX, including himself, wanted to pool $75, go to the Hulman Classic and give it to a driver to help him out.

Luke's friend, Mike Rogers, public relations director for AMAX, heard about their plan and Rogers thought the company might be interested in sponsorship. Luke put together a program telling how many people would be in the stands and that it was going to be on ABC Wide World of Sports. From that, AMAX decided that they were willing to get involved, so the original group of four men never had to put in their own $75.

That particular year, 1977, James McElreath was sponsored by AMAX at the Hulman Classic. "He won his heat race, but I think he dropped out of the feature," Luke recalled. Meanwhile, AMAX officials watched it on national television.

"I figured that was it, but I got a call the following Monday morning asking how much it would take to sponsor the sprint car for the rest of the year," Luke says. "That's how I got started in sprint cars and how I got my start in auto racing."

Interesting stuff. I did not know that! I think he's wrong about the result, though. Didn't McElreath win the Hulman Classic in 1977, unless he's referring to the 1976 race? Anyway, he worked for Bettenhausen's team from 1980 to 2000. Here's a picture of him.